We are currently in a pretty good place with video games being adapted into film and television. After many years we’re at a place where things are finally getting to a certain level of quality, a good quality. This feels like twenty-five years ago when I saw Blade in the theaters taking superhero movies to a new place. We’ve had two huge successes this year: The Super Mario Bros. Movie and The Last of Us. And with The Last of Us was the start of Sony’s push of the PlayStation brand outside of just games and taking those things into film and TV. That brings us to the Twisted Metal franchise, which started in 1995; it’s a game based on car combat. Think Death Race, but mixed with a Demolition Derby. The game was fun and had a pretty simple story, but the story became much more interesting as it continued into the second game. The franchise has had some highs and some pretty big lows. Still, I have to say; like many, I was quite surprised that PlayStation Studios decided to make a show out of this along with some of its more current and biggest franchises like those as mentioned earlier, The Last of Us, God of War, Horizon, and even Gran Turismo (oh I will be reviewing that). Most of those games are very narrative-focused and honestly built like playing a film or a TV season. Twisted Metal isn’t one of those.
Now they choose to craft a more original story than the one in the first set of games. In this, we have a post-apocalyptic world, like the many others we see on TV these days. Anthony Mackie plays John Doe, a call back to the games who is a Milk Man, a cute name for a courier who travels the wastelands of the United States delivering things from gated city to gated city. After doing one mission for New San Francisco, its boss Raven (Neve Campbell) makes John an offer he can’t refuse, so he takes the job to travel to dangerous New Chicago and back. After a run-in with a woman who doesn’t talk, who he later calls Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), the two are an unlikely duo as they have adventures on the road, trying to complete the mission and meeting many colorful characters. See, here is where I think the show goes the wrong course. See, I think the most recent comparison I can make to this is the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie. Instead of sticking close to what made the thing work and people enjoy it and be entertained, they want to worry about setting things up or not trusting the original idea. That initial idea got you here.
While Mackie uses all his charisma, charm, and comedic talents, it’s still a hard lift to make this show always work. This show is an action-comedy, but at times the pacing of each episode feels long and meandering. An episode that’s 30 minutes literally at times feels like an hour-long network show. Beatriz gets a lot of the good dramatic stuff to do in the show and does well with Mackie as the co-lead. They go down a usual trope with these two that disappointed me some, but I was still entertained. Even still, this show doesn’t have enough car combat for me to be Twisted Metal. Thomas Haden Church plays Agent Stone, a play on the character from Twisted Metal: Black – his character is the big bad of the series that sometimes works and sometimes just seems pretty easy to deal with. Then we have the mascot of the game, and at one time one of the mascots of the whole PlayStation brand Sweet Tooth. He’s mostly a goofy joke played as a threat but never comes off the way I think he would. His physical performance, Joe Seanoa, aka Samoa Joe for my wrestling fans, is really good, but he has a voice actor of Will Arnet, which, as much as I like him, I don’t think he’s needed. Seanoa could’ve done it himself, and I think it would’ve been better with more intimidation. The real threat that Sweet Tooth is supposed to be, even if he’s entertaining. The show is a bit too long and can be fun at times, but at others, it’s too much of a chore, and I don’t think that actually keeps the spirit of what playing Twisted Metal at its heights was like.
Score: C
RIOTUS 